Beach clean guides and resources
Thanks to volunteers like you, we're able to take action to tackle our ocean crisis, and positive steps to recover our ocean. On this page you'll find useful guides and helpful resources to help you, to help us.
Photo ID guide for litter survey
We've created a handy litter photo ID guide for volunteers which supports our litter survey form. We've focussed on items in particular that are hard to identify or tricky to categorise.
Beach clean organiser training videos
If you're new to beach cleans or you haven't organised one in a while, take a look at our handy training videos. They'll tell you everything you need to know about organising, running and evaluating a beach clean.
Watch our beach clean organiser training videos.
Volunteer briefing guide for organisers
Our briefing guide will help to keep everyone safe and informed during the event
We've put together a handy guide explaining how to brief the volunteers taking part in your beach clean and survey.
Include in the guide is a brief background to the Marine Conservation Society, an explanation of why our beach cleans and survey data is so crucial to the health of our oceans - and some important details about health and safety on the day.
Download the guide below to take on the day.
Public liability insurance certificate
Below is a link to download a copy of our public liability insurance certificate. Some landowners may ask to see a copy of this document before giving you permission to go ahead with the event.
In order to be covered by our insurance event organisers must make time for appropriate planning, risk assessment and minimisation prior to their event.
Organisers that have completed a risk assessment for their events, provide health and safety briefings before the cleans and get consent from parents or guardians for under 16s to take part in the clean are covered by our insurance.
Risk assessment template
Our risk assessment has been developed to include the most likely risks associated with the beach environment and the activity of beach cleaning with your group.
Due to the changing nature of this environment and variations between risks at different locations, you must adapt this document to suit the location of your event and make note of any additional risks present on the day. There are blank lines available to add risks specific to your event.
You can download our template below, don't forget to make sure you complete and review it on the day of your event.
Beach owner notification letter template
We've created a simple template for a letter you can send to whoever owns the beach that you'll be organising. It details how the event will be run, and why it's so important, and what will happen on the day.
If you are wondering who owns the beach stretch we recommend contacting your local council, if they don't own it they should be able to tell you who does.
Photo and film consent form
We love sharing photos and film from our beach clean events to show the full extent of the issue of coastal litter as well as the incredible work that our volunteers do to help tackle the problem.
As part of your beach clean we'd love you to share those photos and videos with us, but we also take consent very seriously, and if organisers, or anyone involved in the beach clean are planning on sharing these with us we ask that you complete the attached form.
Getting parental consent
In order to be covered by our public liability insurance you must ensure that you have a competed parental consent form for anyone under the age of 16 years.
Below is a form for you to complete for each young person with their parent, carer or guardian. Once you have completed the form please take a photo or scan the document and send to beachwatch@mcsuk.org.
We will securely file the consent on your behalf and you must shred the original document and delete the scan or photo in order to comply with our strict data protection protocol.
Beach clean litter survey form - updated
Our litter survey form will help you log vital data as part of your clean
Please note: our survey form has now been replaced with the updated version above. To ensure that our data remains consistent please use this new form.
Download our litter survey sheet below to log the litter you collect during your clean.
Aside from the easy guide to help you complete sections as you tally up your finds there's also a handy ruler and a list of useful contacts should you, or any of your team need them too.
We recommend taking a handful of paper forms with you, for people who may not be using our new Beachwatch App
Beach clean summary form updated
Our beach clean summary form allows you to collect all the information you need to submit your litter survey
Please note: this survey form has now been replaced with an updated version. To ensure that our data remains consistent please use this new form.
Click on the link below access our simple form to ensure that you collect all of the data you need on the day of your beach clean.
Here you can add details about your beach clean such as weather conditions, the location, and any unusual items you might have found.
You can also summarise all of the litter survey forms that your team have completed in one easy place.
A helpful guide to litter sources
When you record litter items during a beach clean you're not only helping to keep our coast free of litter and pollution, you're also helping us record where the litter has come from.
To help you understand a bit more about the items you'll be recording we've created this guide to litter sources, to help you understand where it all comes from.
Please note: this guide to litter sources is currently being reviewed and updated
Wildlife Aware Beach Clean Code
We want to ensure that beach cleans cause as little disturbance to coastal wildlife as possible. We've partnered with Bird Aware Solent, the 2 Minute Foundation and Final Straw Foundation to create a Wildlife Aware Beach Clean Code. This guidance encourages everyone to follow the Coastal Code and teaches about what beach cleaners can do to help wildlife thrive.
There's a version for Beach Clean Organisers and Beach Clean Volunteers which you can download below.